


Undertaker, please take it slow.

by yrelec



Series: Take this set of keys, Reaper, and you shall have your wealth [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: (kind of), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arthur Finds Out About Merlin’s Magic (Merlin), Birds, Evil Uther Pendragon (Merlin), M/M, Merlin's Magic Revealed (Merlin), Protective Arthur, Sad Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Uther Finds Out About Merlin's Magic (Merlin)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22802116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yrelec/pseuds/yrelec
Summary: There, at the front of the crowd, held back by four men whose faces have gone red with toil, screams Arthur. The people have parted around him. Those nearest spare him concerned glances that linger only briefly before returning to the dance in front of them. Arthur does not look beautiful this close to the blaze. His eyes glint crazed and wild and his skin runs with grime and sweat. The heat has chafed his cheeks and neck and arms.This is who Merlin has suffered for.Merlin would do it all again in a heartbeat.
Relationships: Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Take this set of keys, Reaper, and you shall have your wealth [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1938430
Comments: 32
Kudos: 452





	Undertaker, please take it slow.

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Whisper In The Smoke](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22794154) by [Yarniac](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yarniac/pseuds/Yarniac). 



> That moment when you aren't religious but stan catholic imagery.

..

It happens in just moments: the flames make a flying leap from the torch held roaring in the executioner’s hand. In a sudden rush, like the crashing of a river through a dam, the fire floods across the pyre. It is so terribly hungry. It swallows up the hay and spears of oakwood trees that tremble at his feet. It begins to lick at his ankles.

The fire burns cold, not hot.

Merlin has been working on the spell for years: a brand new facet of magic that could see him shifting into lions if he so chose. He had known that it was only a matter of time before he was caught out. Merlin may have been optimistic, but let it never be said that he wasn’t prepared for the inevitable. From the first burning sorcerer scarred into Merlin’s soul, the spell had simmered in the depths of his conscience: a spell that could allow any warlock to escape the wrath of an unholy tyrant. It was a spell that could turn a pyre into a celebration.

He mutters harsh words under his breath. The magic pools into his extremities. He concentrates, not on his fear of the gaping maws of hell, but on the shiver of his skin. This time, when the fire touches him, he feels nothing but a gentle flush like fabric. The blaze rears up to drag him down with it and yet its blows merely glance off. Merlin has become inextinguishable.

In the last few seconds before the flames reach high enough to shield him from the outside world, Emrys gazes out at the leering crowd. There are few faces there that he recognizes: most couldn’t handle the sight of their dear friend burned alive. The mob cheers garishly at the immolation. Merlin thinks nothing of their jaundiced squabble.

There, at the front of the crowd, held back by four men whose faces have gone red with toil, screams Arthur. The people have parted around him. Those nearest spare him concerned glances that linger only briefly before returning to the dance in front of them. Arthur does not look beautiful this close to the blaze. His eyes glint crazed and wild and his skin runs with grime and sweat. The heat has chafed his cheeks and neck and arms.

This is who Merlin has suffered for.  
Merlin would do it all again in a heartbeat.

An agonizing cry rips from the prince’s throat. It flattens the courtyard with its raw anguish. Merlin longs to reach out to him and comfort his dolorous heart, longs to whisper affirmations in his ear and peel the matted hair from his knotted brow, longs to ease any suffering that has conquered his ailing soul. Merlin can feel tears bite into his cheeks like aconite.

Is this really how Arthur believes he’ll die?

The inferno wraps around his chest and Merlin clears his mind. Fortune does not favor those who let their minds wander even on the most pivotal of subjects. A calm falls over him. He wipes the desolate cries from his mind and breathes deeply before allowing the flames to caress his face. 

Uther towers from his terrace, face grim. There is no soul behind those sunken eyes, Merlin knows that now. No soul could bear to thrum beneath the surface of such a wretched abomination. As Merlin makes eye contact, he smiles, and his heart fills with glee at the fear that flickers briefly over the tyrant’s composure. The fire bursts up in violent ruin, isolating Merlin from the world that curls around him.

The pyre stretches for the sky, tall and barbaric and vibrant. With the psychedelic light blessing the life between his fingers, Merlin leans back and succumbs to the magic.

..

Bystanders will disagree on how the scene played out that fateful night. Children describe the fire as bursting with colors they had only ever dreamed of, a pillar of flame that rocketed into the heavens far higher than the towers of Camelot itself. Witnesses remember the stench of confusion when no screams of agony were heard from the fragile young boy at the pyre. They remember the lack of writhing clearly. He had seemed to stand still, serene in his own destruction. No reek of burning flesh or crack of splintering bone could be picked up by the mass of contorting bodies.

It seemed as if the flames barely touched him; as if he were falling into the embrace of an old friend. 

A bird had burst forth from the flames, feathers as white as the summer’s clouds. Some of the women would go on the describe it as larger than any bird ever seen before, with wings that carried the grace of an angel and a breast as pure as the sun. They would speak in hushed whispers of its great orange throat and its mournful song that mingled in divine chorus with the wails of the prince. It had circled the ground only once, a tribute bleeding from its delicate heart, before soaring off into the horizon.

A cry had sprung up from the guards: “Shoot it down! Shoot it down! Shoot it down!” A thundering of footsteps had accompanied the clanking of armored men, and yet the bird had disappeared into the heavens.

“It was an angel!” Someone cried.

“It was a sign from God!”

The women would then begin to hum the song that they had heard that day so very long ago. It would drip from their lungs and soak up the town with bliss:

_“Then sayd the Pellycan:  
When my Byrdts be slayne  
With my bloude I them revyve.  
Scripture doth record  
The same dyd our Lord  
And rose from death to lyve.”_

_(Hamlet, Act IV)_

..

**Author's Note:**

> I was reading the first few titles in the tag and stumbled across a fic about Merlin being burnt alive. I felt the need to write a reaction piece where Merlin can do anything because he's magic and I could never allow him to die.
> 
> That being said, the original work is great and you should go check it out.
> 
> That also being said, I think this would be a great concept for a Merlin/Arthur story where Arthur only finds out about Merlin's magic at the trial and is WRECKED and Merlin who escaped by being a bird is able to make his way back to him like some sort of Jesus/Prodigal Son kind of resurrection. Please, somebody, use this as your own brainchild. Tag me, for sure, use this as the opening chapter, create a 50 million word work based solely on these thousand words and go all out. I implore you. I am out of time and words to strive further.
> 
> Thanks,  
> me.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [like a phoenix](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23625562) by [rageynerd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rageynerd/pseuds/rageynerd)




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